Tuesday, January 10, 2012

I'm leaving this open another day or two: this is your big chance to win a coveted Plain Blog "Catch of the Day." Well, at least a share of one. All you have to do is find examples of Republicans calling what Congress is up to now "recess." I'll take anything during the current...uh, what are they calling it? Anything from when they left town in December up to now. Leave them below, or email them to me. The previous call got a bit of a response, but I think I'll wait a bit more and see if anyone wants to dig up some prime examples, which I certainly expect are out there. Go for it! Nothing says success more than an authentic Plain Blog Catch of the Day -- all the cool kids already have one, and now's your chance!

President Obama’s decision to bypass the vacationing Senate and directly appoint 15 nominees has produced some expected cries of outrage from Republicans.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) pronounced himself “very disappointed” with the move, charging that it showed “once again” that the Obama administration has “little respect for the time honored constitutional roles and procedures of Congress.” The president’s team had “forced their will on the American people,” McCain fumed in a written statement.

Were these the words of a principled opponent of presidential recess appointments, or of a politician in a tough primary jumping at an opportunity to bash President Obama?

Well, here’s how McCain reacted in 2005 when President Bush was considering a recess appointment for John Bolton, the controversial nominee to be United Nations ambassador: “I would support it. It’s the president’s prerogative.”

Indeed, just a few years earlier, McCain had succeeded in a one-man crusade to persuade President Bush to install a favored nominee using a recess appointment. Here’s how UPI described it in 2002:

Arizona GOP Sen. John McCain prevailed in his fight with the White House to have Ellen Weintraub, a former Capitol Hill attorney, named to a Democratic seat on the Federal Election Commission as a recess appointment. McCain must now be overjoyed that her colleagues have elected her chairman of the commission for the coming year. In her new role, Weintraub, the wife of Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold’s legislative director, will have a lot to say about how the regulations governing the McCain-Feingold campaign legislation will be written an implemented.

Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell also joined in the protests of Obama’s recess appointments on Saturday, calling them “stunning” and “yet another episode of choosing a partisan path despite bipartisan opposition.”

But back in 2005, under President Bush, McConnell spoke what is probably far closer to the truth. When asked by a Fox News host if a recess appointment of Bolton would make the atmosphere in the Senate more poisonous, McConnell replied “no” and pointed out, “typically senators who are not of the party of the president don’t like recess appointments.”